Dubai: Routes connecting Dubai International remained among the busiest in September, with Dubai-Riyadh, Mumbai-Dubai, Dubai-Jeddah and Dubai-London Heathrow among the top 10 international routes, data showed.
The Kuala Lumpur (KUL)-Singapore (SIN) route kept its spot at the top of the international route ranking this month, with 326,492 seats, just over 10,500 seats each day, aviation data firm OAG said.
Dubai (DXB)-Riyadh (RUH) was the second busiest international route, with 307,058 seats, moving up one place from last month.
Antalya-Moscow Vnukovo, New York JFK-London Heathrow and Cairo-Jeddah completed the top five.
The Mumbai-Dubai route had a capacity of 228,794 seats, Dubai-Jeddah saw 223,090 seats, while Dubai-London Heathrow saw a capacity of 221,948 seats.
The Dubai-Riyadh route was also the busiest in the Middle East region, followed by Cairo-Jeddah with 257,324 seats.
In terms of domestic routes, Jeju (CJU)-Seoul (GMP) in South Korea with 1.3 million seats led the charts.
“Routes in places two to five remain the same as last month with Sapporo New Chitose (CTS)-Tokyo Haneda (HND) in 2nd place, Hanoi (HAN)-Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) in 3rd place, Fukuoka (FUK)-Tokyo Haneda (HND) in 4th place and Melbourne (MEL)-Sydney (SYD) in 5th place,” OAG said.
With the gradual reopening of the market in China, the country saw a capacity increase of 10 per cent in September compared to last month.
Beijing (PEK)-Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) remained the largest route with 655,343 seats, with 13 per cent higher capacity than last month, while Guangzhou (CAN)-Shanghai (SHA) was the second busiest route with a 50 per cent capacity increase.
Domestic capacity in the US, however, dropped 9 per cent, data showed.
Las Vegas (LAS)-Los Angeles (LAX) remained the busiest domestic route in the US with 286,262 seats, followed by Honolulu (HNL)-Kahului (OGG) at 281,548 seats.
DXB remained the busiest international airport in September, with 3,939,224 seats, followed by London Heathrow at 3,394,453 seats, OAG data showed. Amsterdam (3,164,299), Paris CDG (2,915,730) and Istanbul (2,853,964) were among the top five.
Dubai International’s half-yearly traffic stood at 27.9 million passengers during the January-June period, just 1.2 million shy of the airport’s total annual traffic last year. The airport recorded 14.2 million passengers in the second quarter of 2022, a year-on-year jump of 190.6 per cent. The airport handled a total of 154,993 flight movements during this period, up 55.9 per cent compared to the first half of 2021.
“DXB’s recovery from the impact of the global pandemic has been spectacular, and that position has been strengthened during 2022, particularly during the second quarter. Not only has Dubai Airports been successful in managing the recovery, but customer service quality has been maintained throughout. We knew at the start of the pandemic that the dramatic downturn would be followed by an equally dramatic upturn, so we were well prepared for it and using all of the business data at our disposal were able to predict the start of the recovery,” Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said earlier.
Based on the strong first half and projection of a stronger second half with average monthly traffic expected to reach 5.6 million passengers. The airport anticipates a total of 62.4 million passengers by the end of 2022.
